Sunak’s main rival for the most recent conservative leadership race, Penny Mordaunt, remains as Commons Leader. The MP for Portsmouth North bowed out of the race on Monday after failing to get enough votes from her colleagues.
As Commons Leader, Mordaunt organises government business and is responsible for delivering the government’s legislative programmes. In the past, she has almost always voted for a reduction in spending on welfare despite women being more likely to claim benefits at some point in their life than men, and she also campaigned to leave the EU, a decision which also adversely and disproportionately affects women.
Mordaunt was formerly Minister for Women and Equalities from 2018 to 2019. During that stint, she became the first MP to use sign language in the House of Commons, and she voted in favour of same-sex marriage and legalising abortion in Northern Ireland.
She has generally gone against climate-conscious policies, including in 2021 when she voted to exempt taxation and spending, national security and defence from policy areas where ministers would be required to have due regard to environmental policy.
While Mordaunt was named ‘Ally of the Year’ by the Conservative Party’s LGBTQ+ group, she faced serious criticism for “throwing the LGBT community under the bus” (via Pink News) during her first leadership campaign. This came after tweeted about “the trans orthodoxy,” seemingly in a bid to win over gender-critical voters.
Kemi Badenoch
Another previous candidate for Conservative Leadership, Kemi Badenoch will stay in her positions of Women and Equalities Minister and International Trade Secretary. The Saffron Walden MP has a background in engineering and said earlier this year that her department “will do everything they can to support women into apprenticeships and engineering.”
During her first bid for leadership in the summer, she acknowledged that rising childcare costs put huge pressure on working families. As part of the government’s Levelling-up report this year, she speaks about a £200 million investment to support struggling families, but this relief isn’t being felt by working mothers amidst the rising cost of living.